Telemarketing has proven its worth as a combination of
telecommunications technology and direct personal selling. It offers
increased control over sales travel costs by qualifying prospects before
incurring travel expenses, and it supports more-efficient handling of
clients and accounts, combining service with new sales.

Now telecom managers have the opportunity to demonstrate to their
companies' management that telemarketing power can be augmented by
using another telecommunications technology--audioconferencing--to
reinforce a marketing message.

One example can be found in the difficult yet rewarding medial market. Health-care companies, in business to sell indispensable
medical products and services, are concerned about the efficiency and
thoroughness of their marketing methods to reach and hold physicians,
pharmacies, clinics and nursing homes. Physicians, in particular,
because of the often urgent nature of their work and busy schedules, are
among the most difficult to contact. By simply doing their jobs, their
secretaries or nurse/receptionists can be helpful, but also obstructive.

The standard, tried-and-true personal call, without any telephone
pre-qualification, has inherent disadvantages: higher travel expenses
incurred in covering thinly populated rural territories or travel
between major cities, as well as time lost from more productive
activites.

It has been estimated that it costs a pharmaceutical company over
$100 per completed personal call to a physician (with some medical
equipment companies often spending $300 to $400 for a product
demonstration). A part of this $100 investment is direct-mail costs in
preparing the way for the personal visit, intending to boost its
effectiveness. Yet there are uncertainties about the effectiveness of
direct mail, with many variables involved in its execution. Dick Ray,
vice president of marketing of TeleRx Marketing in Springhouse,
Pennsylvania, tells of a recent medical journal article that included a
report from a physician who saved all his unsolicited mail during 1982.
He discovered the collection weighed 503 pounds; among the letters,
brochures and pamphlets, he counted 41 unrequested periodicals. Genuine
Sales Adjunct

Much has been written about telemarketing as a sales aid in
initially qualifying sales leads and preparing the path for the sales
call. In its simplest form, it is a method of appointment acquisition.
Combined with audioconferencing, telemarketing can be a genuine
marketing/selling adjunct.

The selling process depends on timing, among other things. There
often is a crucial moment at which a sale has optimum potential for
completion. This sales close, in turn, often depends on the salesperson
having at hand all the information needed to convince the potential
buyer.

The need for ready access to important data in selling is explained
by Jerry Servoss, president of Telemark International in Denver.
"The sales process is sometimes suspended by a lack of
information," he says. "The selling cannot proceed until a
key point, often technical, it clarified."

The salesperson needs an immediate means to get an answer to a
question--often technical--without a break in the sales process (that
is, ending the interview, leaving and then arranging another
appointment). "By quickly telephoning an audioconferencing bridge,
the salesperson and the prospect are linked to an expert, if necessary,
from his or her own company or a mutually agreed-upon objective resource
person," explains Servoss. All can talk easily in the
teleconference to solve the problem.

Servoss adds that a telephone bridging service can be alerted in
advance. The salesperson can be made aware of the teleconferencing
option and have the phone number to call. "In some cases, a large
order hangs on the answer to a formative or factual question," he
explains. "This immediate access to information avoids the usual
procrastinations and prevents the salesperson from being put on
hold."

Momentum is retained; the sale is made.

Because there is no way to predict all the ramifications of a sales
situation, it is desirable for a salesperson to gain as such control as
possible at the point of sale. Telemaketing helps qualify prospects,
which is one kind of control, the telephone conference, filling the gaps
that might come up in the sales presentation, is another kind of
control. The salesperson can quickly arrange for the prospect to ask
questions of an actual user, a former or current customer who has
purchased an identical product or service, all by telephone, with the
salesperson still in attendance, controlling the situation.

Another way to combine telemarketing and telephone conferencing is
with the use of audioconferencing for peer discussions among high-level
decisionmakers, such as physicians. After a new drug has been released
by a pharmaceutical manufacturer, there is a period of trial during
which time the drug is cautiously tested and appraised. As with many
complex products, there is a "Catch-22"; physicians will not
prescribe a new drug without having total confidence without using it.
So they wait, sometimes years, to hear through word-of-mouth about the
experiences of other physicians. They need a way to pool their limited
experiences of the drugs with others efficiently.

By using a teleconferencing bridge, an audioconference is arranged
shortly after a drug is put on the market. Two or three physicians who
are using it successfully talk with 10 to 12 physicians who are
interested, but havent yet used it much. Tape-recorded excerpts from
experts' audioconferences are also played to them, describing the
benefits and shortcomings of the product. If what they hear sounds
promising, they are given the opportunity to prescribe the drug for a
limited number of patients, and return to another conference a few weeks
later.

They can then pool their experiences in an organized fashion, and
see if the product is living up to its promises. If they each use the
product only 10 times, they will have more than 100 experiences to talk
about. They participate from their own homes at night. All project
design, invitation, moderation, telephone and conference bridge charges
are paid by the pharmaceutical company. Helps Boost Sales

Many dramatic sales increases have resulted, even for more mature
products that had previously leveled off. It works for many other
products, as long as the product is superior and either high-ticket or
high-volume. Virtually nobody is going to make a substantial decision
without first talking with other people, and either trying in a small
way or observing what someone else is doing. The process is organized
and accelerated in a much more thorough and objective way than anyone
could do alone. Also, word-of-mouth is much more credible than
salespeople or advertising, and this method is an organized
word-of-mouth delivery system.

As a result of this physicians' review by peers (those who
have maximum credibility with other physicians), the product is, in
effect, marketed with objectivity and thoroughness. It is screened for
side effects or negative results. Both the physicians and the
pharmaceutical companies get what they need.

COPYRIGHT 1985 Nelson Publishing
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